A former police captain told The Daily News on Thursday he is conducting an internal affairs investigation into allegations a tenant organizer made about a former Palo Alto police lieutenant’s work for East Palo Alto’s biggest landlord.

Brad Zook, who in 2005 retired as a captain from the Palo Alto Police Department, said city officials hired him as an hourly management specialist to review the case involving Lt. Tim Morgan, tenant activist Christopher Lund and Palo Alto-based Page Mill Properties.

Zook said he hopes to complete the investigation this month.

Late last year, the Palo Alto Police Department made a recorded phone call to Lund to investigate Page Mill’s claims that he had attempted to extort money from the company, an allegation Lund denies. Police completed the investigation, but the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against Lund, Palo Alto police Agent Dan Ryan said earlier this year.

The Daily News reported in early February that Morgan was doing contract work for Page Mill and took photographs of Lund outside his home as part of that job. At the time, Page Mill officials said Morgan was investigating whether Lund followed a company official’s wife.

Several weeks later Morgan retired, but said the decision had nothing to do with his outside employment.

Both Ryan and Morgan have said the lieutenant’s work for Page Mill did not affect the investigation into Lund, even though Morgan was a supervisor in the police department at the time. Lund and others have questioned that statement.

It remains unclear precisely what Lund’s complaint alleges, but the police department’s policy manual prohibits employees from accepting outside employment “as a private security guard, private investigator or other similar private security position” to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Morgan has said he worked for Page Mill as an emergency and risk management consultant. Others say he escorted Page Mill officials to meetings.

Because the investigation is a personnel matter, the police department will make no public announcement about its findings, Zook said. Lund will receive a letter saying his complaint was either sustained, not sustained, exonerated or unfounded.

Zook, who spent about 20 years on the force, said he has conducted many administrative and criminal internal affairs investigations. Some led to officers serving prison time, while others exonerated them, he said. This case is administrative not criminal, Zook said.

He wouldn’t specify how many current or former employees are under investigation, if any.

Zook added that he can’t speak publicly about details of the investigation. He did note that one issue is how Page Mill obtained a copy of the recorded pretext call. The company later gave the recording to reporters.

Asked whether the department could discipline former employees, Zook said only Dennis Burns, interim police chief, could respond to that question.

“I can tell you, hypothetically, you can’t do anything to an employee that’s no longer an employee, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look back and see what happened,” Zook said.

He noted that police cannot compel a former employee to give information for an internal affairs investigation.

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton challenged Congress on Thursday to combat fake and misleading news on social media, using a post-election appearance to tackle an issue that gripped her presidential campaign and culminated with a shooting incident Sunday in Northwest Washington.